In various commercial and home-based DIY (Do-It-Yourself) construction/manufacturing concerns, there may arise a need to cut large sheets of material into smaller panels of specific shapes and dimensions. Typical sheet materials may include wood, wood composition material (e.g., plywood), melamine (e.g., for carpentry, cabinetry, furniture manufacture, etc.), aluminum, plastic (for the signage construction) and the like. Generally, the size of these sheets prohibit the use of readily available and inexpensive table saws and require instead the less readily available and more expensive panel saws.
Panel saws may come in two frame orientations: vertical panel saw and the horizontal panel saw. The vertical panel being the larger of the two panel saws may offer greater cutting capability and versatility. The panel saws may also varying in expense, complexity, capability; ranging from costly CNC controlled types to less expense manually adjusted panel saws. Generally, usage, space limitation, and monetary concerns determine the selection of the type of panel saw.
Panel saws may comprise a framework, a linear guide, a carriage, and a cutting tool that is powered like a circular saw or router or that is manually operated like a knife. The linear guide (e.g., a pair of parallel, spaced-apart railings) could be attached at the framework's top and bottom edges. This placement could substantially provide for a space between the linear guide and front side of the framework through which the material to be cut could pass to come into contact with the cutting tool. The linear guide's placement upon the framework could further place the railings to be generally perpendicular with respect to the bottom edge of the framework generally bisecting the framework.
The carriage could be movably mounted to the linear guide utilizing bearings that ride upon the railings so as to generally locate the carriage between the railing pair. The cutting tool could be mounted on the carriage to allow a cutting surface or element of the cutting tool to be placed between the railing pair as well. The resulting carriage and tool combination could then move freely along the length of the linear guide and cut across the width (e.g., height) of the framework, unless locked into place at a desired height on the guide. Some versions of the carriage may further provide for a rotation of the cutting tool within the carriage to orient the cutting tool for use when the carriage is moved down along the guide or when the carriage is fixed at a point on the guide (and to allow the material to be cut to be fed into the cutting tool.) By adjusting the orientation of the cutting tool (e.g., powered circular saw) within the carriage, the cutting tool may provide two kinds of cuts: cross cuts (e.g., vertical/widthwise cuts) or rip cuts (e.g., horizontal/lengthwise cuts.)
For example, when the rip cut is desired, the carriage and tool combination could be fixed at a certain position on the linear guide (e.g., at the height on the linear guide where the rip cut will occur on the material to be cut being inserted into the framework) and with the orientation of the cutting surface or element (e.g., saw blade) being parallel to the bottom edge of the framework (e.g., perpendicular to the railings of the linear guide.) When the tool is activated, the operator could feed a sheet of material to be cut into the framework. This feeding action could result in the material being moved into the powered saw at a fixed height to allow the saw blade to impart a rip cut (e.g., a horizontal cut at a constant height) in the material to be cut.
If on the other hand, the cross cut is desired, then the cutting surface or element could be oriented perpendicular to the bottom edge of framework (e.g., parallel to the railings of the linear guide) with the carriage and tool combination being raised up to the top of the linear guide to generally clear any material to be cut that may be loaded or moved into the power saw. As the operator places material to be cut into the framework and the portion of material to be cut is between the linear guides and the frame work, the operator can lock the portion in place relative to the framework. As power is applied to the cutting tool, the operator could move the carriage along the linear guide to allow the cutting tool to vertically engage the material to be cut as fixed proximate to the framework.
One of the possible drawbacks for a panel saw could be the panel saw's expense. Even a simple vertical panel saw may cost in the order of thousands of dollars. Many small manufacturing concerns and home-based DIY enthusiasts, in order to obtain a manual horizontal panel saw for a price they can afford, attempt to make their own panel saw by building the framework, linear guides, carriage to incorporate a cutting tool (e.g., circular power saw) to make their own horizontal panel saw. While a framework may be inexpensively constructed from easily available materials, there may be greater difficulties in building vertical linear guides, carriage system or both.
One expense of a linear guide could be a bearing system interface used to connect the carriage to the linear guide. Such bearing system interfaces may be required to translate the cutting movement of the assembly of the carriage and cutting tool relative to the linear guide into a smooth and controllable movement. The use of round cross-section railings and pass-through bearings in the panel saw may result in the carriage (and hence the cutting tool) to be substantially captive to the linear guide and generally allowing the removal of the carriage from the linear guides only with extensive disassembly. This limitation, in making it more difficult to switch out tools from the panel saw, may generally require a non-inexpensive, dedicated power cutting tool to generally be permanently attached to the carriage (and the linear guide.) The use of a captive carriage may also lead to complex assemblies needed to rotate the cutting tool to change cutting tool's orientation of the cutting tool's action relative to the linear guide and the framework. The usage of round cross-section railings and pass-through bearings may further increase the distance between the material being cut and cutting tool (e.g., generally reducing the depth of cut.)
What could be needed is an easily and an inexpensively built vertical panel saw that could incorporate a simple linear guide with a corresponding inexpensive and easy-to-fabricate, bearing-less carriage. It could be desirable to have the carriage to be able to removably interlock or engage the linear guide and then move the carriage together with the removably attached cutting tool along the linear guide to the region where the cutting tool then engages the material to be cut or work piece being held by the panel saw. The carriage, in being non-captive and be easily removed from the linear guide, could allow the assembly of carriage and cutting tool to be removed from the linear guide; be rotated and be reinserted into the linear guide to reorient the assembly of carriage and cutting tool as needed for a desired action. Further, the carriage could be inexpensively fabricated (e.g., various types of cutting tools, such as a circular saw, router, jig saw, knife, etc., could have their own dedicated carriage if desired) generally allowing a carriage (with one type of cutting tool) to be easily taken out of the linear guide and replaced with another carriage attached to another type of cutting tool.
The invention could also provide the carriage with its own reversible mounting capability for the respective cutting tool. Such a carriage could easily be constructed to removably mount various makes and manufactures of one type of commercially-available, non-dedicated, hand-held powered cutting tool. This mounting capability could allow an operator to use a cutting tool already in the operator's possession, rather than procure a specific manufacture of cutting tool for dedicated use in the panel saw. Further, by having the ability to easily reversibly mount the cutting power tool to the carriage, the cutting tool can be removed from the panel saw and be committed to non-panel saw uses when the panel saw is not in operation.